


Taste of Freedom

by TheCarmineWanker



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29300331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCarmineWanker/pseuds/TheCarmineWanker
Summary: Hectorpunz, Snow White AU. In which Rapunzel runs away from an arranged marriage and gets cursed along the way.
Relationships: Hector/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled)
Kudos: 4





	Taste of Freedom

It was the week after Rapunzel’s 21st birthday and it felt like her life had just ended. That morning, her father told her oh-so-casually at breakfast that she’d be marrying Prince Horace of the Dark Kingdom the following week. When she realized that her protests fell on deaf ears, she gave in or, at least, that’s what she wanted her father to believe so that he wouldn’t suspect anything when she ran away that night. Luckily for her, it was later in the fall, meaning that it got dark out earlier and that she’d have more time to flee under the cover of darkness than she would have in the summer.

As always, Cass helped. She helped sneak some food from the kitchens and packed a little knapsack for Rapunzel to carry with some essentials. She helped Rapunzel get some normal clothes so she wouldn’t stand out and she helped braid her waist-length brown hair and tucked it under the cloakand, then, she helped Rapunzel sneak out of the castle. Rapunzel knew Cass would be one of the people she’d miss the most.

The further she got from Corona, the more secure she felt but, also, the more she felt the gravity of what she’d just done. She slowed her pace to give Maximus a bit of a break and surrendered to her thoughts, letting grief and guilt wash over her like an icy tide but, then, she began to rationalize her actions. She felt bad about hurting her father like that but, then again, he had been ready to sign her whole life away to a stranger so, really, wouldn’t cutting him from her life be equal? It seemed wrong to leave her people behind but, as a princess, she’d never had enough actual power to do anything for them and was always kept locked away in a tower so she was never able to engage with them at all. Leaving Cass behind didn’t feel right either but she didn’t deserve to have her life upended like that.

Maximus led her deeper into the woods as she continued to think until they were interrupted. Out of nowhere, a man riding a rhinoceros jumped out in front of her while large felines came in from behind, effectively trapping her. The man sneered at her.

“Play time’s over, Princess.”

She could feel hot, angry tears welling up in her eyes.

“No. I’m not going back.”

“Yes, you are. I’ve got orders and I never go against my king, especially not for some spoiled brat who’s wasting everyone’s time for some midnight ride,” he spat.

She laughed bitterly and angrily.

“So I’m a ‘spoiled brat’ for not wanting to sign my entire life away to a stranger?”

“It’s a small price for luxury,” he tossed back.

“I’d throw it all away in a heartbeat for freedom,” she countered without hesitation, her voice full of conviction. “What do you think I’m doing right now?”

Something in his expression shifted but he kept going.

“What I think is that, in an hour or two, you’ll change your mind and go home after wasting all our time by making us go search for you.”

“You’re wrong.” She glared at him, full of fierce determination. “As long as I’m alive, I want to _live_ , not just survive. So you can either let me go or drag me back until I run away again or even die, if that’s what it takes to be free.”

This got to him in a way nothing else she said had. He called the cats back to him.

“Go. I’d rather be responsible for your escape than your death.”

She didn’t hesitate to take off again with Maximus at a full gallop, further away from Corona and from the strange man who’d granted her freedom, however fleeting it may be. 

Hours later, in the wee hours of the morning, she and Max were too exhausted to go much farther, so they stopped at a stream where he could drink and she could sleep under a tree, wrapped in her cloak, after treating him to an apple for his efforts while she pulled out an impossibly pristine one for herself. However, as she bit into the apple, it turned out to be cursed as, immediately, everything faded to black and she fell into a cursed sleep.

. . .

It was Hector who found her only a few hours later. He’d honestly intended to leave her to her own devices after he let her go the night before but she just made it so _easy_ for him to track her that he found himself keeping up with her even though he had no intention of dragging her back to the castle. It gave the cats something to do, at least. He discovered her, seemingly dead, on the bank of the stream, being guarded by her horse. A quick check of pulse and breathing confirmed that she was still alive. He tried to wake her up in a few different ways, but nothing worked. Combined with the pristine apple with only one bite in it that the horse hadn’t eaten, his suspicions were confirmed that it was a sleeping curse.

The issue was that every curse that ever existed needed to have a way to break it written into it as part of the laws of magic because, otherwise, the curse wouldn’t work. Magic was all about balance so, therefore, any given form of magic had to be balanced- curses needed ways to be broken and benevolent spells needed costs. The other issue was that, the more powerful the spell, the more powerful the counterpart to it had to be. The strongest healing spells had the highest cost and, likewise, the strongest curses, sleeping curses included, required the strongest magic to break them. With sleeping curses, he knew from things he had encountered in his work that they required true love’s kiss to break them, the problem being that true love’s kiss all but didn’t exist.

Hector sighed. He really hadn’t had any intention of bringing her back to her father but, with this particular curse, she’d need to be around people in order for there to be any hope of it being broken. The horse didn’t like it when he picked her up, getting restless and kicking at the ground. He rolled his eyes.

“She’s been cursed and needs to be brought back.”

The horse was still clearly wary of him.

“I know she wanted to be free, and I was going to let her, but she needs to go back for that curse to be broken. She’s going to die of exposure out here.” He didn’t stop to look over his shoulder as he hopped on his rhino, cradling her in his arms to keep her warm, and headed out, but the horse followed and he knew it.

It took them hours to get back to Corona but they made much better time than Rapunzel had, since Hector knew where he was going and Max actually had a destination this time. Kings Frederic and Edmund were equally upset when Hector brought the princess in. Prince Horace, he noticed, was distraught as well but also seemed a bit relieved to not necessarily have to rush into marriage with the princess.

“What do we do?” Frederic asked, his voice hollow, when Hector brought his daughter to him, where King Edmund and Prince Horace were as well.

“Sleeping curses can only be broken with true love’s kiss, your Majesty. I’d suggest having the prince kiss her and seeing if that fixes it before trying anything else.”

Edmund nodded in approval of Hector’s suggestion.

“He’s right, Frederic. It can’t hurt to try.”

“You’re right.” The other king turned to address the prince. “Prince Horace, if you would.”

Looking understandably nervous, the prince approached the princess, who Hector was still holding, and slowly, gently, kissed her. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, it didn’t work.

“What now?”

“Your Majesty, I would suggest working through this methodically,” the prince suggested. “Start with every person she’s been in contact with who’s here in Corona and, if that doesn’t work, then bring in everyone she’s met who isn’t here currently. If it isn’t anyone she already knows, then I’m afraid it would be impossible to find out who it really is.”

His suggestion made sense and Frederic approved of it.

“Alright. I’ll see to it.”

. . .

Rapunzel was laid on her bed and, one by one, every person in the castle she’d ever interacted with was brought there but, still, nothing worked. Every hour, the king grew more impatient and cursed Cassandra, who had been promptly arrested for providing the apple, which had been discovered by a servant. Apparently, when the queen died in childbirth when Rapunzel was born, the king hadn’t taken it very well and had cracked down on criminals like never before. This resulted in Cassandra’s mother, Gothel, being executed for a relatively minor crime involving witchcraft. As such, Cassandra had wormed her way into the royal household and bided her time until, finally, the timing had been perfect for her to get her revenge.

Her revenge had worked well and, thanks to it, there was a constant trickle of people going into and out of the princess’ chambers. Sometimes, Hector wondered if fate had enough of a sense of humor for it to be him, but he never tested that idea. After all, he couldn’t let anyone know that he’d bumped into her in the woods that night and had let her go, especially since she was cursed shortly afterwards, and lumping himself in with ‘people she had been in contact with before being cursed’ would reveal that. Unfortunately, Horace could be surprisingly perceptive sometimes. It was on one of those occasions that he pulled Hector aside for a chat.

“Do you . . . know her? You keep looking at her like you do. Sometimes it even seems like you really think it could be you but keep telling yourself it’s not.”

“You’ve always had an overactive imagination, _your Highness_.” He always pulled out Horace’s title when he was irritated with him.

“Not with this. When did you meet her?”

“When I found her cursed next to the stream.”

Horace sighed.

“You know, one would think that, after knowing each other for years, you’d be able to trust me a bit more.”

“ _This isn’t a game_ ,” Hector hissed. “If I’d met her before I found her and told anyone, I could be _hanged_ for it.”

“Then I’d like to ask something: will you really be okay with it if she never wakes up if you never tried? Will you live the rest of your life wondering if it was meant to be you and if you’re the reason why she never woke up and never will? Even though you didn’t curse her, you could be responsible for the end of her life.”

The words he had exchanged with her in the woods replayed in his head- he would rather be responsible for her escape than her death. He would have rathered take responsibility for and be punished for the princess’ flight and the sudden termination of the marriage agreement than have her die, even in a way he wouldn’t be directly responsible for. He sighed.

“I ran into her in the woods that night. She said that she wants to ‘live, not just survive’ as long as she’s alive. She said I could either let her go or take her back like I was supposed to but she said that, if I did that, she’d just run away again or die, if necessary, but, either way, she’d get her freedom and I’d be responsible. I let her go. I said I’d rather be responsible for her escape than her death. I guess this is the same way- I couldn’t live with not doing anything. It’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”

Then, he just about had a heart attack when Frederic came out of the door right behind him. He was still unfamiliar enough with the castle that he hadn’t realized Horace had brought him to right in front of the king’s study for their conversation and, from the look on his face, it didn’t seem like he’d realized that either when he picked the spot.

“I . . . had no idea she felt that way.” Tears were running down the king’s face. “To think she’d rather be dead than be here- I’ve failed her as a father.” Horace went to say something but the king cut him off, addressing Hector. “But you were there and you helped her when I couldn’t, when none of us could, and let her go when she needed to be free. And you were there again to bring her back when the time was right and that was what she needed.”

Hector hadn’t thought of it like that.

“His Highness has a point- knowing what I know now, I can’t imagine anyone else being able to free her. Twice now, you’ve been there for her when she needed you most so, please, try and see if you can make it three times.”

He sighed.

“Alright, I’ll try.”

. . .

After a week of being stuck in a cursed sleep, Rapunzel’s eyes fluttered open. She was back in her room at the castle and in the room with her were her father, the prince she’d been arranged to marry, and the man she’d met in the woods. Her eyes began to tear up as she glared at the latter, sitting up to face him.

“You lied to me! You said you’d rather be responsible for my freedom than my death! Did that mean nothing to you?”

His face hardened.

“I never would have brought you back here if you didn’t get cursed. I wasn’t going to leave you there to fall face first into the stream or die of exposure or something.”

Tears were now streaming down her face.

“Either of those things would be better than being here right now! And why didn’t you just take me literally anywhere else?”

“Sleeping curses can only be reversed by true love’s kiss and everyone you know is here. The best chance of breaking the curse was to bring you back here, _and I was right._ ”

“But you said-” 

“A sleeping curse isn’t freedom, princess!” he yelled, cutting her off. “Neither is death! If you still want to run away, then fine, I’ll fight every guard in this castle and take you far away from here but do _not_ act like I broke my word to you!”

“That doesn’t work if you announce it while my dad is standing _right there!_ ”

She was confused when he turned to her father with a grin.

“I don’t know, what do you think, your Majesty?”

“I think you’re a fool for not already telling her the marriage is off.”

Her eyes widened with shock while the man just laughed.

“After all the trouble she’s put me through, I think it’s only fair.”

“Wait, what?” She could hardly believe what she was hearing.

Prince Horace flashed her a smile.

“We’re free, princess, and it’s kind of thanks to Hector.” He gestured at the man she’d just been quarreling with, who just rolled his eyes.

“Is that true?”

“Yes,” her father answered, “and he’s also the one who broke your curse.”

Suddenly, she remembered what Hector had said about true love’s kiss and blushed scarlet, a small hand flying to her mouth. He smirked at her reaction.

“So . . . true love’s kiss?”

He nodded.

“How did you . . . know?”

“I didn’t. Your dad eavesdropped on a conversation and then he was convinced.”

Horace laughed while Frederic tried to look disapproving.

“I heard him tell the prince about when he met you in the woods that night and I realized that, twice, he’d been there and done the right thing with you that I wouldn’t have been able to if it had been me there instead. In the woods, you needed him to let you go, like he did, but I never could have done that and I don’t know how many of my guards would be able to break orders like that. Later, he was the one who found you and brought you back once you’d been cursed. I thought that, out of everyone here, he was the most likely and that, maybe, he could help you out for a third time, and I was right.”

She was overwhelmed with appreciation and gratitude for the man she’d met in the woods. But, then, something occurred to her.

“What do we do now?” She turned to face Hector. “You woke me up with true love’s kiss but now what?”

He raised an eyebrow at her.

“You’re the one who was willing to die for freedom from a relationship last week, so you tell me, princess.”

She blushed.

“I think I’d like to get to know you, if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, that would be okay,” he replied with the faintest hint of a smile.

Rapunzel wasn’t sure how everything would work out but, now, she felt more confident about the future. Whatever might happen, she would always be grateful for the man she met in the woods who saved her and glad that it was him who broke her curse.


End file.
